Oil bath or bearing buddies?

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monster1

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Since I'm going to replace my bearings all the way around, it might be a good time to decide if I want to switch over to oil bath hubs. I'm thinking it might be a better alternative making yearly bearing inspections much easier. Thoughts?
 
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keith2k455

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I don't know what the conversion entails, but I would take oil bath as well if I had the choice.
 
WIMUSKY

WIMUSKY

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Agree, if you can go oil, go for it. Bearings should last much longer. An annual inspection really wouldn't be needed, imo..... I know, I just walked out on the end of the plank....
 
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H20Rat

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An axle with a leaking grease seal can go a long time, hundreds of miles. A leaking oil bath will be dry fairly quickly. Biggest advantage is for high cost bearings that are run at high speed/load and are run thousands of miles a month. That is pretty much the exact opposite of most boat trailer bearings.
 
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fhhuber

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A friend, who is a master mechanic has oil bath bearings on his boat trailer and hates them. Constantly leaking junk.

They won't be there much longer.
 
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Stumpalump

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Bearing buddies can be a problem also. I copied and pasted what I wrote on a land lubber forum this week. I guess I explained it right...

Bearing Buddies is a trademark. These allow you to pump grease directly into the wheel hub and wheel bearings. You only need these if you dunk your trailer under water. If not then they stick out too far and are just not needed. The trick with these is to only pump in grease until you just start to see the center being pushed out by the grease. Not one extra pump but just until it moves a smidgen. Any more grease will be forced out of the rear seal and slung on your load. All this grease keeps the water out of the hub and bearings. Other brand or knockoffs of Bearing Buddies will fail. The fit is poor so the whole thing falls off, the zerk pulls out of the cheap stamp steel center, the circlip holding the spring and center cap are not made of real spring steel so they fall out and you loose the parts and the center cap fits so bad that it does not move until you pumped a wad of grease past the rear seal. Twice the price of the knockoffs but real quality that will serve forever. This trailer had them or I would have just packed the bearings and put on a steel cap.
 
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gddavid

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The oil bath systems (I have seen) have the largest volume of air in the hub which expands and contracts dramatically with temperature change. So even though oil bath hubs may run cooler down the road, when you dunk them in water the air in the hub contracts and creates a dramatic pressure differential (vacuum) trying to suck in whatever gas or fluid is on the other side of the seal. Since your boat trailer hub is likely under water as the hub cools, any failure of the seal will suck water into the hub. The performance of that seal is limited by the finish of the axle spindle, which is living in a harsh environment. Any corrosion to the surface will create a gap that air or water can pass through, the same is true for grease but it is thicker and is not as highly pressurized due to less air volume in the hub (assuming your are keeping the hub full).

Trailers that aren't dunked in water don't see these dramatic temperature swings, so the performance of the seal is less critical and why they work well on other types of trailers.
 
spoilsofwar

spoilsofwar

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oldjeep said:
Yup - maintenance spec is 5-10 years before you even need to inspect them. Love my Vaults
Click to expand...

10 year unlimited mile warranty, too. I don't know what they cost as a component. They were included standard on my boat/trailer package.
 
oldjeep

oldjeep

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spoilsofwar said:
10 year unlimited mile warranty, too. I don't know what they cost as a component. They were included standard on my boat/trailer package.
Click to expand...

Same with mine, standard on a lot of high quality tow boat trailers.
 
bruceb58

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Aren't vault hubs only on torsion axles? Not sure how that helps the OP. My brother just had a trailer built with vault hubs. Will be interesting to see how they last.

I prefer buddy bearings over EZ lube hubs. I have both types. Oil is not a very popular option and my brother's trailer company did not recommend them.
 
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airshot

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From all the many recommendations I have heard over the years it has been almost unanimous oil for dry wheels and grease hubs for wet wheels. In other words on a boat trailer grease hubs only but for utility trailers not dunked in water the oil hubs seem to be better. Just my two cents worth and that seems to be the consensus here.
 
oldjeep

oldjeep

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bruceb58 said:
Aren't vault hubs only on torsion axles? Not sure how that helps the OP. My brother just had a trailer built with vault hubs. Will be interesting to see how they last.

I prefer buddy bearings over EZ lube hubs. I have both types. Oil is not a very popular option and my brother's trailer company did not recommend them.
Click to expand...

No idea if they are torsion only - but it wouldn't really make sense that they are since there is nothing special about a torsion axle spindle
 
bruceb58

bruceb58

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Personally, I wouldn't get vault hubs. If I had them, I would be carrying some spare grease, a seal and a bearing buddy or some other cap along for when they fail. Do some reading. They do fail and when they fail, all their lube gets released and then you will have a bearing failure.

UFP makes the vault and it is on their axles. Doesn't look like they are offered for refit on other axles.
 
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oldjeep

oldjeep

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bruceb58 said:
Personally, I wouldn't get vault hubs. If I had them, I would be carrying some spare grease, a seal and a bearing buddy or some other cap along for when they fail. Do some reading. They do fail and when they fail, all their lube gets released and then you will have a bearing failure.

UFP makes the vault and it is on their torsion axles.
Click to expand...

I'm not skeered ;) Standard on tow boat trailers and the only failure I ever heard of from a forum full of people who have them was after someone knocked it off diagonally and the it didn't fit right anymore and fell off on the road.
 
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